Nietzsche's Anti-Christ

As religious strife grows, atheists seize pulpit

CAEN, France (AP) - With 40 minutes to go before show time, the 500-seat Alexis de Tocqueville auditorium was already packed. A fan set up a video camera in the front row. A sound engineer checked the microphones.

The star: Michel Onfray, celebrity philosopher and France’s high priest of militant atheism. Dressed entirely in black, he strode onto the stage and looked out at the reverential audience for his weekly two-hour lecture series, “Hedonist Philosophy,” which is broadcast on a state radio station. “I could found a religion,” he said.

Mr. Onfray, 48 years old and author of 32 books, stands in the vanguard of a curious and increasingly potent phenomenon in Europe: zealous disbelief in God.
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The most potent force driving activist atheism is concern that Islam, Europe’s fastest-growing religion, is jeopardizing the principles of the Enlightenment — and emboldening other religions to raise their voices, too, and re-fight old battles.
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Ahead of France’s presidential election..., Philosophie Magazine arranged a meeting ...between Mr. Onfray and the [then] front-running candidate [and now President elect], Nicolas Sarkozy, who sometimes attends church. They argued about faith, politics and philosophy. As a gift, Mr. Onfray gave Mr. Sarkozy several books, including one by his favorite philosopher, Nietzsche. Its title: “The Anti-Christ.”